单词 | window-shop |
释义 | window-shopv. 1. a. intransitive. To browse or look at goods displayed for sale in a shop window without intending to make an immediate purchase, either as a recreational activity or with a view to buying something in the future. Hence also: to browse the goods inside a shop, on a website, etc., in this way. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > buying > buy [verb (intransitive)] > visit (and buy in) shops > window-shop shop gaze1872 window-shop1890 window-gaze1900 1890 N.-Y. Daily Tribune 19 Sept. 2/4 I met him ‘window-shopping’ in Broadway, and he at once turned from admiring the rich porcelain and cutglass in a window to talk about Mr. Reed's triumph. 1907 Illuminating Engineer July 388/1 I have frequently seen men and women..who were window shopping before my place at night, inside buying the things the next day. 1973 R. Busby Pattern of Violence vi. 96 The office girls came out..to window-shop outside the big stores. 2009 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 24 June 12 One in two Australian consumers now window shop online before buying in-store. b. transitive. To browse or look over (a shop or its wares), esp. through a shop window, without intending to make an immediate purchase. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > buying > buy [verb (transitive)] > shop at shop1920 window-shop1939 1939 C. Morley Kitty Foyle 85 I had plenty of time to windowshop the Union Depot in Chicago. 1976 Texas Monthly Nov. 229/2 People divide their time between the McNay Art Institute and the opera.., pausing now and then to window-shop the latest fashions at elegant malls. 1997 Cruise Trav. Mar. 66/1 I still..window-shop the glitzy boutiques. 2010 A. Gross Reckless (2011) 4 They might stroll along Shepherd Market window-shopping the fine antiques and new fashions. 2. intransitive. figurative. To look at or assess a range of choices or possibilities without an immediate intention to make a commitment to any one of them. ΚΠ 1905 Atchison (Kansas) Daily Globe 3 Nov. 4/5 The man who spends lots of time calling on the girls is not necessarily looking for a wife. Perhaps he is only window shopping. 1957 Times 12 Nov. (Canada Suppl.) p. xv./3 Carloads of three-generation family groups visit suburban areas to ‘window-shop’ for somewhere to live. 1983 Mass. Rev. 24 306 We self-styled philosophers window shop through metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, until we settle on those views which suit us. 2011 Church Times 16 Sept. 12/1 It was ‘ludicrous’ that the UK ‘would enable the same government to window-shop for weapons on British soil’. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2021). < v.1890 |
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